On the MacWorld Expo Apple revealed a new Mac Pro laptop with a stunning battery life. Apple proudly claims a whopping 8-hour battery life and states that this is achieved by using a special lithium-polymer cell construction. There's a video about it on the website I link to. The battery will withstand around 1000 recharges and for intensive users who recharge their laptop every other day this could mean a life expectancy of around 3 years and quite a bit longer for less intensive use. Apple claims this is far more than regular laptop batteries will endure - about 3 to 5 times longer - but I can't help but feel disappointed with Apple as those batteries are fixed and non-exchangable. Why? Et tu Brutus?

Batteries can die prematurely and it is not possible to exchange it with the same or even a higher capacity multi-cell one. Switching to fuel cell technology with same form factor/compatible batteries is also out of the question - and fuel-cell technology of tomorrow could perhaps even be a cleaner and more efficient/user friendly solution. I myself have had pretty bad experiences with battery operated devices with battery life far less than what was claimed. Sometimes it feels I am hexed as my cell phones seem to die prematurely and friends and family members are always joking about me having to constantly recharge just about anything electronic/portable battery operated device. It gets worse once the devices get older. So this Macbook Pro might not be one for me.

I was seriously considering getting a Macintosh laptop during the first part of 2009 but this new one with the non-exchangeable battery goes against all EU laws regarding pollution by electronic equipment en environmentally sound technical engineering. Apple did clash with the Dutch and other European authorities over the non-exchangeable battery of the Apple iPhone G3 and it is yet unclear if Apple is also going to negotiate with the authorities over this Macbook Pro. So chances are this laptop might not even make it to the European market. I'll probably end up getting one of the more low end Macbooks - which could actually be the better deal as they have hugely improved GPUs that are not bad compared to the ones found in the Macbook Pro laptops and all in all they have great specs and they come with exchangeable batteries!

Most new features of the Macbook Pro are to be found in the software that it comes with. iWorks seems to have morphed into some sort of paid online membership service reminiscent of Google Docs. It is still in beta phase but no doubt the service will emerge sometime soon. iPhoto and iMovie will have new features. One of the more stunning features found in iPhoto is the face-recognition code that tries to automatically recognize and catalog photos that have the same person in them. Geotagging photos - adding meta information about GPS position the photo was taken - is also a new possibility. iMovie is boasting some after the fact image stabilizing routines that are supposed to make even wobbly hand-shot video footage look like it is shot with the camera on a tripod. Garageband will feature a new option which makes it possible to take music-lessons from known artists like Sting. Of course you have to pay for those.

It seems that most software companies don't like to 'sell' software to users any more. Instead they want to milk them with software memberships requiring one to constantly be on-line. It's not only Apple that is doing it, also Microsoft and other companies with 'Cloud computing' ideas seem to want to go back to some sort of paid 'Main frame terminal' situation. This could mean a lot of unnecessary internet traffic, congestion and unresponsive systems. Despite my high speed DSL connection I just hate those web-servers that are slow spitting out their XML cascading style sheet php server web 2.0/3.0 based cloud computing stuff. Didn't those remote desktops from a couple of years ago show that this is not the way to go? We need intelligent OSes intelligently communicating and using web resources that maintain themselves in other words have some sort of adaptive immune system protecting it against spyware/viruses.

And to finally get back to the last thing about the Macworld Expo: Nothing was mentioned about somewhat vapourware new MacMini sporting a GPU / memory update, the 32Gb iPhone and the smaller iPhone model that everybody interested in Macs is talking about.

Then finally a note about Steve Jobs being absent and not giving his keynote speech. With all the rumours about Steve having a serious health problem he came out with an official statement saying that he had lost weight the past year because of a 'hormone imbalance' that is baffling his physicians. Being sick and not exactly knowing what it is with the media constantly focusing on it is just horrible and I can understand why he put out the official notice. The question is whether this did any good as only definite and concrete info will probably be able to keep the press at bay and his official statement is a little vague. At the same time it is forceful and shows a feisty spirit. Of course there are the panicky stock holders and the journalists that prey on this sort of situations but it does not become our society. We wouldn't want anyone to have to go through sometime like this being sick - of course it's hard to avoid it being the high profile Apple Guy he is. As a doctor I will absolutely refuse to put any fodder on the rumour mill with speculations and all I can say about that is that I hope Steve's health will improve this year. I am looking forward to some of his new ideas - I hope it has to do with great portable devices with EXCHANGEABLE BATTERIES!